Should Zach Braff Be Using Kickstarter?
Today Zach Braff is feeling happy. His crowdsourcing project on Kickstarter reached its goal of raising several million dollars. Some people have been scratching their head at this. Why does he need to be on Kickstarter? He’s not a first time indie director unable to catch a break, or a film-maker unable to secure other funding for an unorthodox project. He’s an established television celebrity with a following of fans. His debut feature co-starred Natalie Portman and Ian Holm among others. His name opens up appearances on talk shows and other avenues of publicity. He can walk into studios and negotiate a contract. Should he be using public crowd-funding to back his film?
Well…sure. He’s entitled to. No rule against it.
On the other hand, it goes against what Kickstarter represents and he should get bent.
Good start.
Kickstarter, for the uninitiated, is a public website that allows creative and innovative types to solicite donations from the public. To date it has been a massive success that has seen huge numbers of games, books, albums, movies and more go from being dreams to reality. So why are people unhappy with Braff using Kickstarter to fund his new movie?
This little jpg means a dream is real.
Much of it winds back to Braff already having avenues of funding open to him, but also his motivations for using this channel. Even though by the third season of Scrubs, the reason that 99.99% of all people have heard of him, he was no longer the reason why people tuned into the show. His role had been relegated to redoing the ‘World’s Tallest Doctor’ “joke” every episode while John C. McGingly and the guest stars ruled the roost. Braff did prove that he wasn’t a one trick pony with his moody debut Garden State, even though it forced through every indie trope from plugging an up and coming band to including a manic pixie dream girl. His name may not be enough to break the box office but it’s more than enough to get him funding.
He has copped some criticism for his use of Kickstarter already and his response has been…childish. Especially as he has been offered funding by a studio. Given this factoid you have to wonder why he is bothering with the extra effort of Kickstarter. Braff’s explanation is that he didn’t want to compromise on the final cut (although comparing Lucas’s original Star Wars script and the final studio product this isn’t always a bad thing for inexperienced directors). Braff also hated on the studio’s pick of actors, but Braff cast Kate Hudson so what does he know.
“Look! Look everyone! I’m doing acting!”
But maybe the real reason is about publicity. Scrubs is yesterday’s up and comer, and so is Braff, so getting people talking about the project is essential. He found what everyone else was talking about and did the same thing. Veronica Mars was all over the entertainment headlines when it proved that the fans were still behind the project even after it had exhausted all over avenues of funding. Instead of accepting the several million dollar cheque he’d been offered to make his film he jumped on the bandwagon without grasping what made the Veronica Mars success so noteworthy.
Mostly awesomeness.
Now back to the matter of childish responses. Some people have used Twitter to call him out on his unnecessary utilisation of Kickstarter. The general gripe is that Kickstarter is for the little guy to try and make his mark, and Braff is in the Hollywood club using it for marketing. It’s not against the rules but it is against the spirit of the thing. Whenever Braff has been met with criticism his response has been to block the critic and claim they were ‘trolling’ him. House of Geekery asked him about this, and got this response:
He sure showed me. His follower count defeats puny logic. We followed it up with requests to debate this publicly, and asked why his follower count was put on the table, but he ignored us.
Final word? Yes, Braff can use Kickstarter if he wants. But we reserve the right to call him a douchenozzle for it.
Although his director beard is coming along nicely.
Kickstarter isn’t a charity for the little guy. It is not an avenue for someone to get their foot in the door and never return to the site. It’s not a launchpad for new Hollywood talent. It’s not American Idol, there is no ONE winner. It’s a paradigm shift. It changes everything about how the art industry does business. It is giving the control to the artists and democratizing the audience like they never have been before. I don’t see this as him being a douchebag, or taking advantage of anyone, I see this as him recognizing what works. Hollywood types jumping ship from the traditional system to make more artistically free endeavors is something I appreciate and support.
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If the trend moves towards big names all going to crowd sourcing on Kickstarter the little guy is going to wind up in the same situation – overshadowed by the established names.
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1. Maybe at first, but the idea behind kickstarter is that if you aren’t performing or your pitch isn’t good enough, you aren’t getting funded. Yeah, they’ll sail by on some name recognition at first, but that goodwill won’t carry them very far if they don’t produce “good” material even if financially a success.
2. It sucks, but you can’t fault people for being successful. It’s not like they are actively stealing contributors to squash people’s dreams. They’re just trying to do reach their own dream. This kind of exclusivity seems more against the spirit of kickstarter than Braff using it.
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This is all true. As I said he has as much right to it as everyone else. If I was his PR person though, I’d advise him against it.
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I think slamadam said it better than I ever could, but the way I see it, Braff on Kickstarter is all about creative control. When studios give you money, you’re giving studios too much say in how that money gets spent. As an artist, I want to be trusted that whatever I produce will be good AND my own vision, and not leave important creative choices in the hands of suits looking at the bottom line and who have no idea what I’m trying to accomplish/produce. I think you’re overlooking how much political red tape comes along with playing in the Hollywood sandbox.
I agree that Braff does come off as douchey for essentially name-dropping himself for listing his followers count, but on the other hand, he has a built-in market, and he tapped into it. Nothing wrong with that.
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